Good morning! Today we have for you:
The banana boat dinnerWhat is it about certain fruits and vegetables that beg to be stuffed? Zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, winter squash, peppers and apples are only a few of the many ingredients that cooks love to pack with a punchy filling before baking until tender. To this list, Yewande Komolafe adds her lovely new recipe for mushroom-stuffed baked plantains. Stuffing plantains is traditional in Latin American cuisine; cooks often fill the canoe-like fruit with spicy ground meat. Yewande takes a meatless path, letting mushrooms, which she sears with an oniony sofrito, take center stage. To finish the dish, she adds lime-spiked sour cream for creaminess and cubed tomatoes and onions for a fresh, juicy bite. It’s an excellent vegetarian recipe to keep on hand. Featured Recipe Mushroom-Stuffed Baked PlantainsMore food for thoughtHerb-marinated pork chops: To get maximum flavor out of thin, boneless pork chops, Kay Chun sears them first, and then gives them a 15-minute soak in an herby mix of garlic, shallot and olives. It’s a perfect weeknight dinner for when you’re craving something porky. Chilled avocado soup: I turn to cold, creamy soups all summer long, combining vegetables or fruit, aromatics and ice in a blender until sip-able, smooth and tangy. Here, David Tanis whirls together avocados, jalapeño, yogurt and lime juice until mousse-like, and then pours it into bowls for spooning or glasses for drinking. It’s about as easy as dinner gets. Spiced chickpea and lentil salad: This brilliant, protein-packed salad delivers so much oomph for not a lot of effort. Hetty Lui McKinnon coats tomatoes, onions and celery with the warm spices you’d find in North African harira, and roasts them along with canned chickpeas and lentils. Fresh herbs, pistachios and lemon juice folded in at the end brighten everything up. Red curry chicken and rice bowls: Store-bought red curry paste does the heavy lifting in Ali Slagle’s easy, deeply flavored rice bowls. She uses the paste in two ways: sautéed with the raw rice before pouring in broth, and rubbed on chicken breasts before adding them to the pot. A crisp cabbage salad dressed with citrus and peanuts adds a lively bite. Banana cream pie no-churn ice cream: This is homemade ice cream at its simplest and silkiest. To make it, Erin Jeanne McDowell swirls together whipped cream, mashed bananas and crushed vanilla wafers in a brownie pan and sticks it in the freezer. That’s all there is to it! Just be sure to use very ripe, nearly black bananas, which have the rich, caramel notes you’ll want here. That’s all for now. If you hit a technical pothole, email the smart people at cookingcare@nytimes.com for help. And I’m at hellomelissa@nytimes.com if you want to say hi. I’ll see you on Wednesday. For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
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